Article by Helen Akinc Lisa Councilman, one of the Kybele Georgia team leaders, was invited to participate in the 1st US-Georgia Healthcare Conference, Georgia Healthcare 2020: MEDEA 2011 held in Washington DC on February 1-2, 2011. This conference was hosted by the Ministry of Labour, Health, and Social Affairs of Georgia and the Embassy of Georgia to the US, with the guest of honor being the First Lady of Georgia, Mrs. Sandra Elisabeth Roelofs. The purpose of the conference was to bring together Government of Georgia officials, representatives of US and international organizations, non-governmental and private sector stakeholders, and Georgian medical and public health professionals who have been practicing in the US to address the following: 1) To generate awareness and a common vision on the current development and challenges faced by the health care system in Georgia and to identify key priorities to strengthen the system by 2020. 2) To set up a forum for the exchange of information and expertise among the bio-medical and public health communities in Georgia and the US. This includes Georgian institutions, individual experts, US think tanks, academia, NGOs and development agencies 3) To discuss and agree on a Roadmap and Workplan for institutionalizing the support and integration of the Georgian expatriate community into the Georgian health reform process both in the long- (10 years) and short-term (1-2 years) 4) To map technical, financial, and human resources available within the Georgian expatriate, US-based international, and American financial and technical communities and match them with the needs of Georgian health reforms 5) To agree on mechanisms to attract foreign investment and international development assistance (both technical and financial) The conference began with an overview of the current state of healthcare in Georgia, and then the participants split into four working groups for the afternoon. These groups consisted of health financing, human resources, service delivery, and investing in the Georgian health system. Lisa participated in the service delivery working group, focusing on ways to implement a quality management program including strategic planning for data gathering, reporting of critical events, sanctions and penalties for non-compliance, oversight of quality management, and a discussion of the main constraints in the past to ensuring accessible, responsive, high quality, and efficient health service delivery. The second day of the conference began with each working group presenting their reports with ideas and suggestions for immediate and future implementation. An international expert panel with representatives from USAID, the World Band, UNFPA, UNICEF, NICHD, Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, and the Rostropovich-Vishnevskaya Foundation discussed their impressions and ideas for improvement in the Georgian healthcare system. A Georgian expert panel with representatives from the Ministry of Economy & Sustainable Development, Dean of Tbilisi State University, Rector of Tbilisi State Medical University, the Georgian medical community in the US, WHO, and head of the Georgian insurance association discussed their thoughts about implementation of the ideas from the working groups. The conference concluded with thoughts from the Vice-Speaker of Parliament of Georgia, the Deputy Administrator of USAID, the Minister of Labor, Health, and Social Affairs of Georgia, and the First Lady of Georgia.

Kybele is a non-profit 501(c)3 humanitarian organization dedicated to improving childbirth safety worldwide through educational partnerships. The role of Kybele is to bring professional medical teams into host countries, to work alongside doctors and nurses in their home hospitals, and to improve healthcare standards. Kybele volunteers model teamwork and compassion in real life and death situations, sharing knowledge when it matters the most.